


Older

by Withstarryeyes



Series: Soft College Boiiis [8]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Artist Steve Rogers, Cute, Dorks in Love, Fluff, Howard Stark's A+ Parenting, Love Story, M/M, May works for Howard Stark, Playing in Leaves, Protective Steve Rogers, Romance, Steve is a football player, Student Steve Rogers, Student Tony Stark, Tony Stark Does What He Wants, Tony Stark Has A Heart, Tony Stark-centric, Tony is fluffy, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, fall leaves, peter is a kid
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-27
Updated: 2018-11-27
Packaged: 2019-09-01 04:17:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,193
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16757782
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Withstarryeyes/pseuds/Withstarryeyes
Summary: Tony's never played in a pile of leaves. Steve is quick to fix the problem.





	Older

**Author's Note:**

> Hey guys! This is a fill for a prompt given to me in the comments! I hope you like it. I wanted to write something fluffy after the last one of these.

It’s tipping into winter, leaves sharing the space with flecks of white fresh snow. It smells like laundry and air, _ crisp air, _ and Steve crunches the leaves under his feet as they walk hand in hand. Tony’s even cuter in the middle of winter. He’s got a beanie covering the top of his head, sparse hairs flipping out around the edges and one section poking out into his forehead. It’s slightly damp from the snow that’s shaking off of the pine trees and his nose, peeking out above his charcoal scarf, is apple red. He dips his fingers into a snowback, feeling the pile melt under his fingertips and swipes it across the back of his neck, feeling hot under his coat but cold to the air. 

They’re at a park, 3o minutes after Tony’s shift and Steve can taste the cloud of coffee air that floats off of Tony’s clothes like an aura. Off in the distance there’s the tinkling laughter of kids and their parents. 

Tony turns towards it like a satellite dish, springing to his toes to try and see past the trees. Steve engulfs him, pulling him against his chest and extending his arm to the kids jumping in one of the last piles of leaves. They’re wet and fall apart around each child as they dive in, coming out damp and smiling. A smile pulls across Tony’s face like stretched gum and he looks up at Steve with hopeful, brown eyes. 

“Can we do that?”

“Jump in the leaves?” Steve asks. He hasn’t done it since he was small and living in Brooklyn. His mother would rake all the leaves in the yard into three piles and let Steve go wild until the whole yard was covered again in canary ginko leaves. He remembers they smelled like apples and cedarwood and he’d come into dinner like a candlestick, emanating light and perfume. 

He doesn’t know when he stopped, eventually he got too big. Too big for the piles and too heavy to land in them without hurting himself. But Tony’s still small and there’s another pile just a couple of feet behind him. 

“I’ve never done it,” Tony admits, ducking his head down. Steve can’t believe it. Tony has a giant maple tree at his Father’s mansion, it shucks waxy crimson leaves every fall and it’s over a hundred years old. They have a whole new staff that comes in to take care of the carnage that month. “Howard said it was a waste of time.” The smile’s gone, replaced with the pitiful frown that tugs down Tony’s eyes like they’re wrinkled and pinches at Steve’s heart. 

“What did you do with all those leaves?” Steve asks because he’s still reeling and his priorities are on making Tony feel better above understanding. He’s dragging his hand across the slikc fabric of Tony’s parka and tucking him even closer. Tony’s nose is frigid against Steve’s bare jaw. 

“Shredded them, fed them into the gardens. They make a good fertilizer.”

“Your father astounds me.” Steve says and looks around. The whole forest floor is plastered with wet leaves. Yellow ginko, purple sweet gum, orange sassafras. He’s got a rake in his car from fixing the football field from an invasion of campus leaves blown over by the wind storm and Tony looks so sad yet hopeful. He looks like he’s embarrassed he asked. But Steve knows Tony didn’t have a normal childhood. He never got to trick-or-treat or decorate a Christmas tree, he never got to dye easter eggs or bake a birthday cake. He got left in his room while Howard invented and Maria planned Galas and they left all that to the staff. He wonders if JARVIS ever fought it. If he ever took Tony out for doughnuts and hot chocolate and snuck him into a few games of laser tag or into a childrens paint and play place. 

He forgets how proper Tony was raised. He’s sure Tony knew wine before Steve knew all the colors of the crayons in his box. So that’s why, in 40 degree weather, Steve says sure. Because October was another 11 months away and all these leaves were going to go to waste anyway and Steve loves when Tony’s smile reaches his eyes, beaming out from behind his round, golden glasses. 

“Let me get my rake. Wait here?” Tony nods but his eyes are over by the children. He spots one of the moms and waves. Her kid is wearing a weathered Stark Industries t-shirt and thick turquoise glasses. He wanders over while Steve goes to his car and chats her up. She works for his father and he nods, asking her how that is, if she’s going to the Christmas party. By the time Steve gets back Tony’s convinced her to come and let him babysit her kid while she dances. There’s only one night when single mothers can feel like princesses and it’s at the Stark Christmas Party. 

“You’re so sweet, you know,” Steve says and nods his head toward the lady. 

“It’s what anyone would do.” It’s not. Tony should know that by now because Steve will work in a soup kitchen but he never thinks of things like that. Things like paying for someone’s parking ticket or offering up his lawyers to a shop-owner that’s being bought out or inviting May Parker, industry worker, to leave Peter in Tony’s care. 

“Maybe,” Steve concedes and starts piling up the leaves. Tony sits on the ground and watches, talking about his final exams and when he gets off. Steve listens even though it goes over his head and pulls Tony up when it’s done. 

The pile is up to Steve’s knees and glistening but not as much as Tony. He’s beaming like a hyper child and bouncing up and down. 

“How do I do this? Do I just jump.”

Steve shakes his head and scoops Tony up in his arms, one of them under his knees and the other behind his neck.”It’s better to be thrown.”

“Thrown? Steve?!” Tony shrieks but it’s barely contained laughter and Steve just hushes him and loops around to run towards the pile and launch Tony into the air. He slips down into the pile the second he hits it and pops back up with leaves sticking out of his beanie and his glass halfway off his face. 

Steve fakes a tackle towards Tony and he squeals again, thumping him on the back when Steve lands face first beside him and makes a leaf angel. 

“Not funny,” Tony giggles, then sighs and leans back. 

“Did you like it?” Steve asks, curious. Tony nods, smile lazy and warm and Steve kisses the tip of his nose. 

“Was it that fun as a kid? Soaring through the air and crashing.”

“Yeah, Tones,” Steve says and pulls him over, pushing him into the leaves. Tony drags him in too and they splash in a pool of leaves until they’re both soaking wet and shivering. 

“Thanks,” Tony says as he dries off under the heat in Steve’s car, “I’ve never flown like that before.”

“Anytime, Tony. anytime.”

**Author's Note:**

> I'm sorry it took so long for me to write another one of these. I've been really busy in college myself and writing slipped away from me. I hoped you enjoyed it and if you did please leave a kudos or a comment. Feel free to leave prompts for me too, I love writing them. I also have an email address that you guys can send prompts/ fanart to if you want. It's writetheskyaway@gmail.com. Also, if you haven't seen it, the lovely starksnack made a piece of fanart for Autumnal Shenanigans and you should go check it out. It's beautiful and linked to the bottom of the fic. 
> 
> Thanks for all the love and feedback on this series!!  
> \- C


End file.
